Future FBI in Training Program Provides Interactive Experience

Future FBI in Training Program Provides Interactive Experience

The Future FBI in Training Program, which is sponsored by the Bureau's St. Louis Division, exposes full-time college students who live or attend college in eastern Missouri to STEM and cybersecurity careers.

Video Transcript

Karyn Feeney: The program is a mock cyber-terrorism investigation. The students get to conduct an investigation from start to finish as if they were real special agents.

Student A: When I first applied for the Future FBI in Training Program, I was really uncertain of what it was going to be like. You know I wasn’t sure how interactive it would be – or if it was just going to be, like, kind of throwing you in there and, “ Hey, solve this case.” But it turned out to be nothing like that. We got to work side-by-side with the agents as we were going along, got to hear from bomb techs, the evidence response team. So we heard from everyone and we really got to see what it was like going through each of these different teams. If you’re interested – you think you might be interested in the future in pursuing this career, I think you should just apply for it. You know, apply yesterday – it’s a really good program. You’ll get to see what it’s like to be an FBI agent.

Student B: A lot of people just think, “Oh, they can just go into my house and do whatever,” and it’s like no, like, I have to follow the law too, so I need to get information, like warrants and stuff, so.

Student C: I think the simulations really show you how, you know, when you’re put in that situation you don’t know all the facts and you have to decide right away, like, you know, “Do I shoot them? Do I not shoot them?” And if they’re - if they seem threatening or if you feel in harm, like, in harm’s way then, you have to do what you have to do and sometimes when you find out all the facts later it doesn’t look as good for you. But in that moment, that’s what you had to do.

Student D: Made me realize that there’s a lot more than just, like, a field agent that is a part of the FBI. There’s a lot more separate groups and there’s a lot of opportunities that you can do no matter what your kind of major is. Good thing that I learned that. You know, people see, like, movies and everything just goes really fast but you don’t see how much work people actually put in. There’s a lot more steps than I thought. It just kind of opened my eyes to like, “Wow there’s a lot that they do; they spend months on these type of things rather than just a short amount of time.

Feeney: Our program is open to full-time college students. Those who are studying cyber, IT, computer science, intelligence, STEM and foreign language will get priority because those are the critical needs of the FBI.

Student E: No, it doesn’t get any better than the FBI. The best of the best. Program is great. Program is great, I’m learning a lot – it’s only been two days but uh, I’m learning a lot and I’m hungry for more. Kind of makes me want to be an agent already.

Student F: Starting that scenario and seeing that I could do it, really gave me the confidence. It’s like, okay, I can be the best of the best if I give 100 percent and work really hard. So, with that I applied for the internship and was able to secure a position. And then with that, I was able to secure an entry-level full-time position with the FBI.